Hare Krishna Maharaja,

Please accept my humble obeisances, all glories to Srila Prabhupada! 🙏

I hope all is well with you Maharaja.

I just wanted to write something, and to have your association and to hear from you.. and maybe this post could be useful for others too?…

ASA - fIVE gOOD rEASONS tO wRITE! 🐵

I’ve had the good fortune to hear some of your classes and kirtans on YouTube lately, it has been very inspiring. Also I’ve read back through a lot of your DTC posts.. there are many gems of wisdom there. Thank you.. 🙏

Just to share some background, and thoughts I’ve had lately, if I may..

I am a practicing Brahmacari, and overall my experience has been quite nice. Asrama life seems to make following Srila Prabhupada’s program quite easy-chanting 16 rounds, following the 4 regs, etc… it is just nice to be in a place where devotional service is always flowing.. one can take shelter simply by showing up to the programs.. quite a blessing really.

HpS - One time Jayananda Das said to us that Krsna consciousness was eating and sleeping in the best of company, only eat Prasadam and sleep in the Brahmacari Ashrama and you will have no problems!

I really like to give Srila Prabhupada’s books to people face to face, on streets, campuses or whatever. But aside from that initial contact it is hard to connect with people and help them along; I don’t feel so capable of doing that in my current state.

Maintaining relationships with people can honestly be quite difficult, even with others in the asrama, who we’re supposed to be close to and friendly with. Sometimes things feel competitive. Maybe that’s just normal for us in Kali-yuga?.. Would you have any advice how to improve our relationships/behavior/attitudes with other devotees?

ASA/HpS - The answer to that question really seems to be a vast majority of the content of SB, CC etc! When the NoI came out I read Text Five and it helped so, so much. I could then begin to see that there are different kinds of devotees and we talk in intimacy with them differently.

Then of course, Text 10 talks about all kinds of people from Vikarmis to Srimati Radha and gives us hints how to deal with them.

Beyond that, again, Hansadutta told us that SP said that every psychological circumstance that you can encounter is in SB.

Take the stories to heart.

Put them in modern dress.

Do dramas out of them.

Then you will relate to people as expertly as Narada Muni! 😯

I read in a recent blog post, one devotee said something about feeling lonely as ever, even in the community of other devotees and your response was very interesting:

“From reports that I get, most

American devotees feel the same. Once a crocodile, a crocodile until death.”

It made me wonder if it’s just part of the karma of being born American to have trouble getting along with others and wanting to dominate everything.

HpS - Hmmm. Lot of variety in Americans, but I would say that seems we will have a lot of that mentality.

Maybe horses instead of crocodiles.

Just have to learn how to use it in Krsna service.

We really, all, only have one Best Friend, and until we get His association we will feel lonely.

Anyways, I hope I’m not rambling on too much, but thank you for your time! I don’t know if I’ve made any sense here.. but I would be glad to hear anything you have in response..

I feel like a little ant that is just starting to realize the fact that I am only a little ant, with a lot of work to do (to return to Krishna)!

Hare Krishna, thank you again Maharaja. 🙏

Your servant, Abhaya dasa

HpS/ASA - 🐜 . . . 🐒 You are in Chicago Temple, no? Respects to Kishor Kishori.